1. Field
The present invention generally relates to an ultrasound system, and more particularly to an ultrasound system adapted to precisely and easily perform TGC (Time Gain Compensation) and LGC (Lateral Gain Compensation).
2. Background
An ultrasound system has become an important and popular diagnostic tool since it has a wide range of applications. Specifically, due to its non-invasive and non destructive nature, the ultrasound system has been extensively used in the medical profession. Modern high-performance ultrasound systems and techniques are commonly used to produce two or three-dimensional diagnostic images of internal features of an object.
In order to transmit and receive ultrasound signals, the ultrasound system is generally provided with a probe including a wideband transducer. When the transducer is electrically stimulated, it produces ultrasound signals and transmits them into a human body. The ultrasound signals transmitted into the human body are reflected from borders between human tissues and then returned to the transducer. The returned ultrasound echo signals are converted into electric signals. Thereafter, ultrasound image data for imaging the tissues is produced by amplifying and signal-processing the echo signals.
Typically, the ultrasound system is provided with a control panel including a plurality of input units in order to perform a control function of acquiring the ultrasound image, a menu control function, a measurement and annotation function, etc. The control panel is comprised of a touch panel, an image control unit, a measurement control unit, etc. The touch panel displays menus for optimizing an ultrasound image displayed on a display unit. The menus on the touch panel can be touched and selected by a user. The image control unit controls the ultrasound image, whereas the measurement control unit measures a distance to the object, a circumference of the object, etc. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the image control unit includes a plurality of TGC control keys 11 and a plurality of LGC control keys 12. The TGC control keys 11 are used to control a gain of each echo signal based on depth of the position from which the echo signal is reflected. Further, since the echo signal is attenuated at the outer right and left sides, the LGC control keys 12 are used to control a gain of the attenuated echo signal.
In the conventional system, the TGC control keys 11 and the LGC control keys 12 are arranged on different areas of the control panel. The problem associated with such an arrangement is that the size of the control panel must be inevitably increased. Further, a user of the system suffers a great inconvenience when operating the TGC control keys 11 and the LGC control keys 12. Another problem of the conventional system is that since the TGC control keys 11 and the LGC control keys 12 are comprised of slide-type variable resistors, it is very difficult for an unskilled user to finely control TGC and LGC with the TGC control keys 11 and the LGC control keys 12.
In order to resolve the above problems, the present invention is directed to providing an ultrasound system adapted to display a setup screen used to input TGC and LGC curves on a touch panel and perform TGC and LGC based on the inputted TGC and LGC curves.
The present invention provides an ultrasound system, which comprises: a signal acquiring unit adapted to transmit an ultrasound signal to an object and acquire an echo signal reflected from the object; a signal processing unit adapted to perform TGC (Time Gain Compensation) and LGC (Lateral Gain Compensation) upon the echo signal at a coarse compensation mode based on predetermined TGC and LGC values; an image producing unit adapted to produce an ultrasound image of the object based on the TGC and LGC compensated echo signal; an input unit adapted to allow a user to provide TGC and LGC curves; and a TGC/LGC setup processor adapted to set TGC and LGC values based on the TGC and LGC curves provided by the user. The signal processing unit is further adapted to perform the TGC and LGC upon the echo signal at a fine compensation mode based on the TGC and LGC values set by the TGC/LGC setup processor.
In addition, the present invention provides an ultrasound system, which comprises: a processor adapted to configure a setup screen for display; and a touch panel adapted to display the setup screen so as to allow a user to input TGC and LGC curves. The processor is further adapted to calculate the TGC and LGC values based on the inputted TGC and the LGC curves.